Hackers Love Accessing Your Personal Information

Last Monday I received an email from Adobe requesting an updated credit card number from me because my renewal was about to expire and they could not charge my card. I thought this to be odd but never clicked on the link to update my information. Good thing I did not because a few days later I received this email from Adobe:

Important Customer Security Alert

To view this message in a language other than English, please click here.

We recently discovered that attackers illegally entered our network. The attackers may have obtained access to your Adobe ID and encrypted password. We currently have no indication that there has been unauthorized activity on your account. If you have placed an order with us, information such as your name, encrypted payment card number, and card expiration date also may have been accessed. We do not believe any decrypted card numbers were removed from our systems.

To prevent unauthorized access to your account, we have reset your password. Please visithttp://www.adobe.com/go/passwordreset to create a new password. We recommend that you also change your password on any website where you use the same user ID or password. As always, please be cautious when responding to any email seeking your personal information.

We also recommend that you monitor your account for incidents of fraud and identity theft, including regularly reviewing your account statements and monitoring credit reports. If you discover any suspicious or unusual activity on your account or suspect identity theft or fraud, you should report it immediately to your bank. You will be receiving a letter from us shortly that provides more information on this matter.

We deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause you. We value the trust of our customers and we will work aggressively to prevent these types of events from occurring in the future. If you have questions, you can learn more by visiting our Customer Alert page, which you will find here

Adobe Customer Care

This just reinforces why we must slow down and think before responding to emails and phone calls from people claiming to be representatives of companies that we patronize. I have received calls from people asking for my personal information and I tell them that I will contact their office later that day, or the next, making sure that I have noted both their name and contact information. I then check my billing statement and/or search their company website for contact information. I contact the company directly and inquire about my account and any status updates that they need. There are hundreds of people in the world waiting to prey upon the elderly, naive, and the too-busy-to-pay-attention. Please take the time to pay attention, ask questions, and do the research. Your identity, credit, and livelihood depend upon it!